More than Artifice
by Young Goodman Brown
Summary: Shikamaru overanalyzes, reinterprets, and subsequently demolishes a romantic cliché. A man's allowed at least one awkward, corny moment in his life, so she'll let him get away with it—just this once.  ShikaTema.


_A/N: New pairing? Oh yezz, we'll see how it goes. A spin on the classic 'love-you-till-the-fake-rose-dies' scenario._

_Disclaimer: Yeah, no._

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Shikamaru thrust the bouquet of red roses into her face, flushing lightly as he turned his face away. "…For you."

Temari's jaw dropped in shock. Suppressing a cry of excitement, she nearly snatched the flowers from her boyfriend and immediately inhaled the sweet scent of the buds. She almost sighed dreamily before she remembered that she was supposed to be the _super hardcore, kickass hell of a kunoichi! _type and tried to clear her throat instead. "Erm. G-getting soft, huh, Nara? But thanks."

He only snorted in reply, gesturing toward the note tied to the bouquet. She turned it over. _Love you till the last one withers._

"Oh!" Temari gasped. Was this what she thought it was? This was something that only a preteen girl should gush over, and not a damn adult woman of 24, but still—gah, it was so unbelievably _sweet_! Did Shikamaru truly love her enough to do something so unabashedly cute and romantic? The shoujo mangas that she most certainly did not hide under her bed prepared her for what must be coming next, and with a light giggle she dug her hand into the bouquet —

Frowning, she brushed her fingertips across the top of the flowers. "…Where's the fake rose?"

He only shrugged. "There isn't one."

A sudden chill permeated the air. Shikamaru gulped. "Uh, Temari…"

"_There isn't one_?" He nearly jumped at the livid glare she sent his way. In the blink of an eye she was in front of him, thrusting the bouquet in his face. Her eyes were wild with fury and despair. "What the _hell_ are you trying to say? Without the fake rose, that means that—that—that _all_ the roses will wither soon, you idiot!"

Trying to avoid cowering in fear at his girlfriend's fearsome anger, Shikamaru breathed deeply and held his ground. "Yeah, I guess they all will."

"You _GUESS?_" She roared, waving the flowers around like a battle flag. Shikamaru winced as he heard her crunch the stems in her fist. "The whole point of the rose thing is to prove your eternal love and all that crap, not to…not to show that your feelings are—are—that all of this was just some _fling!_" She stomped angrily from him, crouching down a few steps away as she clutched the bouquet to her chest.

_Breathe, breathe, breathe. You only traveled three days to see him; you only devoted five years of your life to him. You only gave the whole of your heart to this insensitive bastard. Breathe._

After a tense silence, Temari finally exhaled. "…What did you mean to say by this, Nara?"

Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I didn't add the fake one on purpose, Temari," he said quietly, "because it wouldn't make a difference anyways."

"Wouldn't make a difference, huh?" To her horror, she felt tears escape her lashes. With an angry fist, Temari brushed them away, starting when she felt a strong hand land between her shoulder blades. "Don't—_don't touch me_!"

The hand didn't move, instead drawing comforting circles on her back. She huffed in irritation for a few minutes before allowing his touch to calm her down. "I don't need the eternal promise of a fake rose, Temari," Shikamaru finally said, without even the hint of a drawl. "…Because new roses will always spring up to take its place."

Her brows furrowed in confusion. Temari turned her head to look at him, eyes begging for an explanation. Shikamaru sighed. "I didn't want my feelings for you to be represented by an artificial abstraction—i.e., the fake rose— because my feelings for you are _real_. They aren't forced or constructed, because I'm not in love with you just for the concept. You shouldn't have to look at a plastic flower shrouded in glass to know of my feelings, you see?"

He exhaled deeply before eyeing her carefully. She frowned. "No, I don't…see…"

Shikamaru bit the inside of his cheek nervously. "What I mean is…love isn't static, Temari. It isn't set in stone, or in plastic. It's alive and organic. That means emotions can change and live and die, because emotions are human, which can sometimes be bad since humans _aren't _perfect, so…"

With a shaking hand, he trailed his finger down the streaks left by her tears. "It doesn't matter if all the roses die," he murmured quietly, cupping her face gently. "We'll get into fights, and we'll get on each other's nerves, and there'll be some things that will just be too hard to forgive. I might make you cry, and you might even make me cry too. We'll both hurt each other, sometimes on accident and sometimes on purpose.

"But those dead roses don't have to just be reminders of all of our mistakes," he said firmly, his fist tightening by his side. "It's only by learning from our rich and sometimes sordid history, _together_, that we can use those experiences to fertilize the foundations of a…of a relationship. And from there, if we…stick together, we can form a metaphorical garden." He smirked lightly when he heard her disbelieving snort, but continued on at her watery smile. "Yeah, I really did say that—our love can be a garden. One that will last forever, one that's constantly in bloom—not because the flowers are plastic, but because the gardeners work hard." His voice grew quiet. "It's troublesome, but…I would work endlessly for you."

Quickly he slid something onto her finger. Before she could look at it, he enclosed her hand inside his larger one, squeezing gently. "I said I would love you till the last one dies, right?" He turned away in embarrassment. "Every time I see you, new roses always spring up. So…if I were to see you everyday, for the rest of my days, then…" Shikamaru opened his hand, finally revealing the ring upon her finger. He lifted his gaze to meet hers. "There will always be roses. My love would never wither."

They stared at each other for a long moment, intense umber meeting uncertain cerulean. She cleared her throat, fingering the ring nervously. "Umm…are you asking…what I think you're…?"

Shikamaru leaned back from her, cheeks flushed. "You get it now? Tch, and you're supposed to be brighter than the other girls."

An eerie silence passed. Shikamaru looked up at her. "Oi, Temari—"

"_ARRRrrrgHGHhhhH!_" Temari grabbed his collar as she scrambled to her feet, roughly clutching the man by the throat. "You can't be serious! Where is the real Shikamaru?"

"It's me, Temari, seriously—"

She only clutched tighter. "You mean to tell me that the stupid rose metaphor thing was your convoluted attempt at a proposal? What are you aiming at, Shakespeare? Are you serious? How many drafts till you came up with that, huh? And honestly, how the _hell_ was I was supposed to… to understand _any_ of that, without your crazy long and complicated explanation?" Another shake. "That was practically a thesis, a damn monologue! Since when do you talk that much? Gahh, you're so insufferable! And confusing! And…_errrrrgh__—_!"

"…I thought it wasn't too bad. Maybe it sounded better on paper," Shikamaru muttered self-consciously, trying to rub his neck with nonchalance. He smiled faintly as her shaking only grew more vigorous. "You still haven't answered, really."

Temari shook him by the shirt halfheartedly. "You do realize that, in your attempt to debunk an excessively corny, overdone romantic gesture favored by lovestruck teenagers, you only came up with something even cornier? Seriously, do I look like the little schoolgirl who enjoys that kind of sap?" She sighed in exasperation. "Our love is a garden? Roses always in bloom? I swear, it almost sounds like Icha Icha—"

"So I overanalyzed a little," Shikamaru said simply, laughing as she growled in agreement. "But I meant it all. And you still haven't answered."

With a muffled sob, she loosened her grip to snake her arms around his waist. Her trembling subsided when she felt strong arms wrap around her, when she felt him smile against her hair. She heaved a deep sigh. "…I don't really like gardening," she whispered, tearing up as she felt him tense. Temari squeezed him with uncharacteristic tenderness, clutching him until he finally relaxed under her touch.

She kissed his temple gently. "But… I'd work endlessly for you too."

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_Mou, I know I shouldn't be sad about it but…the roses are gonna die soon, seriously._

_That's because you crushed them when you were angry. See, look…you broke the stalks. And some of the buds, too! Troublesome woman._

_Yeah, sorry…I got sort of carried away. Which is too bad, because I ended up liking it. Your metaphor, I mean._

_Yeah?_

_Yeah. I'm glad you ended up surprising me. I didn't even realize that…we didn't need the artifice. That we didn't need to immortalize our feelings, or put it on a pedestal or whatever. We're…past that. We're more than that._

_Mhmm…_

_And you…you make f-flowers spring for me, too…_

_Temari…are you blushing? Tch, now what did you say about not being a little schoolgirl?_

_What—what are you—oi! Shikamaruuu! Just because I love you doesn't mean you can run away, dammit!_

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Laughing and smiling and growing as one, Temari and Shikamaru rushed onwards.

They left the roses behind.

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_A/N: Hope that wasn't as sappy as it sounded ^_^;; Inspired by reading one too many fics with this theme. Something about the whole 'love-you-till-the-fake-rose-dies' gesture always bothered me, but I was never quite sure what it was…probably the blatant sappiness of it all, hehe. Anyways, Shikamaru strikes me as the kind of person to overthink things, even if he doesn't intend to do so. At least he can be sweet sometimes :3_

_This wasn't the fic I intended to write as my reintroduction to fanfiction, but whatever XD Hope you liked it! I've never really thought about ShikaTema at all, so I have no idea where this came from o.o Who knows, maybe I'll try to write them again in the future. Either way, you can look forward to more from me soon~_

_If you have any comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear them—especially if anyone has thoughts on the whole "Till the last rose withers" concept! I'm sure I'm not the only one with an opinion on that XD_

_Review, please? :D_


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